


Laces

by Shippeh



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-07
Updated: 2016-09-07
Packaged: 2018-08-13 12:42:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7977130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shippeh/pseuds/Shippeh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy approaches Vex with a suggestion. </p>
<p>(A  smut-based, spiritual successor to Portraiture.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laces

**Author's Note:**

> This is essentially a successor to [Portraiture](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7947940), but because one is rated G and this is definitely not, I thought it best to post on its own. It certainly isn't necessary to read the first.
> 
> In the interest of smut, this may call for a certain amount of suspended belief. There is really no conceivable scenario in which I think these two could go from Portraiture to sex in one day, so bear with me a little bit on that one. This is a 'because you asked, let's have some fun' fic, not a 'I think this might be fitting with canon' smut fic.
> 
> @summonerskies was kind enough to 'inspire' me with a [piece of art!](http://summonerskies.tumblr.com/post/149948201465/nymphandel-mentioned-need-of-inspiration) I'm forever grateful to everybody drawing things for me (as well as shocked).
> 
> Finally, you can find me on tumblr @shippeh, and thank you so much to my beta reader @asspostate (hooboy)

Day two wasn't quite so awful. Vex tried (and failed) to get Sadie to go any easier on the corset, but she found it slightly more bearable now that she knew what to expect. She'd figured out how to regulate her breathing so that she didn't feel like she could suffocate on the spot, and so the pressure, while still wildly uncomfortable, was less terrifying. 

And so Vex'ahlia let herself be led back to that damn boring sitting room where the artist was already waiting. Cassandra was gone today, busy with something a bit more important than whether or not Vex's tits were at the right angle behind lace, so Sadie fixed her up and they were set to go.

Two hours later, the artist announced that he was finished. 

“What? That's it? It took me forty minutes to get dressed and that's all you needed?” 

The artist shrugged, told her that he could do the rest of this without the model being present, and that no, she couldn't see it yet. If she wanted to sit there by herself all day, though, she was more than welcome.

Her response to that was a big, fat, 'fuck no'. Bad enough she'd had to waste one day on this task. Time to get out of this dress and hope to never see it again. Sadie scooped up her train and helped her out of the room, giggling quietly as Vex flounced down the hall in bare feet and fluffy skirts. It'd been some time since her duties had included anything but dusting empty rooms. 

She stopped giggling as she ran smack into Vex's back, who had stopped suddenly in the hallway. Sadie's quick apology was cut short when she peered around layers of taffeta and saw that the pair of them had run into the Lord Percival. 

Vex's hands tightened around the handfuls of fabric she was holding, and she was suddenly very aware of the way breathing in this damned corset made her chest rise and fall like a drowned woman desperate for air. 

“Hello, darling,” she said, “Apparently they don't actually need me to be present for my own portrait.”

“I've had a thought, if you're amicable,” he said. She met his eyes and was shocked to see a complete openness there unlike Percy's normal shuttered demeanor. There was a spreading dust of pink across his cheeks, his ears, and his hands were folded somewhere behind him. He was typically very difficult to read; right now she either had no idea what he was on about, or knew exactly what he was suggesting, and that was hard to believe. 

“What?” she asked. He raised his eyebrows and his glanced flickered quickly over her, down and up in a 'blink and you'll miss it' motion. “If you're suggesting what I think, then I don't believe I've ever felt more amicable in my life.” To her immense surprise, Percy tilted his head in a small nod. Her turn to raise her eyebrows. Without looking away, afraid that loosing his attention might startle him away like a timid deer, she said over her shoulder, “Miss Sadie, I think you can be dismissed.”

“Oh, are you sure? The knots on this are rather difficult to work alone and-”

“Yeah, I think we'll be okay.”

“Oh. Ooooh. Okay! I'll just go, uhm.... nice meeting you, Lady Vex'ahlia!” There was a heavy swoosh of fabric as Sadie dropped the train suddenly. The young maid was trying to stifle a giggle, and failing. She was probably blushing as well, but Vex wasn't going to look at see. Very quickly, Sadie vanished like only a skilled servant could. 

Vex offered her arm to Percy, and after a second he took it with a hand that was visibly trembling. ' _That's precious,_ ' Vex thought, and she took her other hand and placed it over his, firmly. “Your room, or mine?”

“Oh, I-”

“Hadn't thought that far ahead?”

“No.”

She laughed, drawing from him a reserved smile. She was starting to feel a bit light-headed now, unsure if the corset was too tight today or if it was a result of the way her pulse quickened. “Perhaps you know a guest room where nosy family might not think to look?”

“Yes, that's a better idea. Yes. I do.” He starts down the hallway with her on his arm; she lasted all of four seconds before tripping on her too-big dress and gripping him harder for support. He had the decency to look contrite; she just laughed and kicked the fabric out from underneath her feet. Percy led her to a door, pausing with his hand on the knob. “Are you sure-”

“Gods, yes, get in.” She reached around him and opened the door herself, pushing him through the doorway before scampering in behind him, turning to lock the door once she was sure her entire dress had made it through. “I've been waiting-”

Vex turned back towards the room as she spoke, suddenly interrupted by Percy's mouth on hers, pressing her against the door, rough, insistent, a little bit desperate. She responded instantly, stretching up on tip toe to grab his collar with both hands, pulling him down so that she could reach him more easily. He pressed her firmly between his body and the door, and she knew his hands were on her waist but she could barely feel them through the thick, sturdy fabrics of her dress. 

He kissed her like nothing else existed, stubble rough on her cheek, his breath heavy in her mouth, and she responded in kind, gasping, gasping-

“I can't-' she said suddenly, pulling away, using his collar to hold him back when he tried to claim her lips again, “I can't-”

Percy's eyes went wide, and he drew away. “I'm so sorry, Vex, I'm sorry-”

“No, I can't breathe!” She was gulping down air as well as she could, but it was only making it worse, her lungs straining hard to fight against the tight restraint of the dress. Her head felt light and there were bright points of white clouding her vision. “Percy, untie me,” she managed to get out, her voice thin and strangled. 

She pushed past him, away from the door, to lean forward against a dresser. He was quick to oblige, joining her and working at the main knot as quickly as his shaking hands would allow. She felt the knot go, and then quick pressure as he undid the laces with a steady zipping noise. In a moment she had space to breathe again, drinking air in deep pulls. The panic of suffocation faded, and Vex turned around to face Percy, who was holding long lengths of ribbon in his hands now. 

She chuckled, a small cough interrupting the noise. “I don't think you're supposed to pull the entire thread out,” she said.

He looked down as if surprised. “Oh.”

Plucking at one end of the ribbon with her hand, she said, “Shame to waste it now, though.”

“What?” 

Vex pressed closer to him, twisting the length of fabric in her hands, smiling up at his confused little frown. “I'm sure I could think of a few uses for a nice sturdy ribbon.”

“Oh. _Oh,_ ” he replied.

Her grin turned absolutely wicked as she took the ribbon from him, pushing him firmly backwards, towards the large ornate bed taking up most of the guest room. She gripped his sleeve as she went, pulling on it until he understood and shrugged the entire coat off, leaving it rumpled on her floor. He let her lead him further, falling on the bed when the back of his knees hit the edge. 

Vex paused then to kiss him again, leaning forward and pressing her lips against his. Softer, this time, with less aggressive desperation; Percy raised a hand to cup her cheek, his calloused thumb running across her soft skin. She reached for his undershirt, pulling apart the buttons with deft hands without even looking, her eyes closed. His hand was trailing down her neck by the time she finished with the buttons and started trying to pull this layer of clothing off, too.

He helped her, stripping his undershirt off while she let her ribbon-tangled hands caress his bared chest. She could feel his pulse under pale skin, loud and fast, her fingers slowly tracing unfamiliar scars. “Vex,” he whispered, softly, taking one of her hands in his and raising it to his mouth to kiss carefully. She met his eyes, letting her rough, archer-calloused thumb run across his bottom lip. He took the tip of her thumb carefully between his teeth and she pulled in a breath.

“Percy,” she answered. “Sit.” He shifted to the head of the bed, leaning against the headboard as directed. Vex leaned over the edge of the bed, moving his hands behind him, against the bars of the headboard; she untangled her ribbon and tied his hands together, then to thick bar, while he watched her intently. Once finished, she kissed his scruffy cheek and then stepped back. 

Vex stood in the center of the room, dress sagging forward now that it was untied completely. Carefully, respecting the expensive fabric that had once belonged to Lady de Rolo, she pulled it lower, down past her hips, before stepping out of it and leaving it in a silken puddle on the floor. Standing now in nothing but a breezy slip and her underwear, she looked up to meet Percy's intense gaze from the bed and she heard him swallow, hard. 

Carefully, slowly, deliberately- she grasped the bottom hem of her slip and raised it upwards, twisting it up and over her head before tossing it onto the ground beside the dress. 

Percy made a soft noise. In a heavy corset, you didn't need to wear a bra. She grinned, running one hand up from her hip, along her stomach, resting at her bare tit with a small squeeze.

“Hardly fair,” he said, shifting but firmly tied to the bed. 

“I've got to gain some advantage somehow,” she replied, stalking towards the bed without letting her eyes leave his.

“As if you don't always have advantage,” he said, managing to keep his eyes firmly on her grinning face while she climbed onto the bed. 

Carefully, she maneuvered over his legs and into his lap, straddling him. Vex took his face in both hands, leaning forward to kiss him softly on the corner of his mouth, pulling away before he could catch her lips with his own. “That's true,” she whispered into his ear. She took the edge of his ear into her teeth, gently nibbling, and felt his breath pick up against her bare shoulder. A hand brushed into his hair as her mouth wandered lower, kissing along his jawline, his neck, nipping once and chuckling against his skin when he jumped. 

One hand toyed with his hair, running through it slowly. The other played over his chest, his stomach, dipping lower. She toyed with the hem of his pants, and he murmured her name quietly. Vex moved from the base of his neck back to his mouth, kissing him on the edge of his mouth and then finally allowing him to turn and claim her lips with his. She kissed him hard, pushing him back against the headboard, her grip tight on his hair. Her tongue ran swiftly across his lip before dipping past them, tasting him, and when he sought her out with his own tongue she claimed it, sucking firmly and feeling his body buck underneath her. 

Eager to push him further, she shifted her body down against him. He moaned against her lips and she shivered, pressing herself against the hard bulge in his pants. If it was frustrating for her to feel nothing but pressure through her corset earlier, this must be infinitely worse. He strained against her, and she rubbed against him, enjoying how it felt to tease him but also how it felt to rut against him, just a few layers of clothing in the way. 

“Gods,” Vex whispered, and she couldn't resist anymore, sliding her own hand down into her panties. Oh, she was wet. She arched back, pulling his head forward by his hair to her tits, groaning as he eagerly obliged and took one nipple into his mouth, his tongue firmly teasing, sucking. She stroked herself, using two fingers now to rub her clit, harder, then faster, twisting as Percy moved from one pert breast to the other, breathing quickly, gasping, until it was all too much, pleasure building until she nearly burst. Her grip on his hair was surely painful but he didn't complain, kissing her breast, up her chest, her neck, until she'd ridden out her orgasm and let him go. 

She swallowed, hard, mouth suddenly very dry, and looked down at him. Percy was looking up at her like she was everything important, and it made her heart stop for a beat- but then she laughed a little, breathlessly, because his glasses were completely skewed on his face and halfway down his nose. Vex ruffled his hair and them plucked them from his face, folding them against his chest with one hand before leaning over and placing them gently on the bed's side table.

“I'd prefer to see you clearly,” he said.

“You won't be able to keep them on when you're fucking me,” she said.

“Oh,” he said.

She pressed forward against him, nibbling playfully on his neck again while her hands found the knot securing him to the bed. She couldn't see it and had to go by touch alone, so it took a moment, but very quickly she pulled on a loose end and the entire knot came apart. Percy wasted no time and grabbed her, pulling her against him into a kiss.

She pulled back after a moment, hands on his shoulders. “This is lovely, dear, but you're going entirely too slow.” 

“Oh?” Percy grinned at her, slid his hands up her body to her shoulders, and then shoved her backwards.

She flopped onto the bed, adjusting her long braid so that it wasn't directly beneath her head. “Much better,” she said.

He didn't say anything else as he moved to join her, holding himself up on his forearm while the other hand kneading against her tit, kissing her hard into the blankets. She lifted one hand to his chest, running her fingers through the light hair there, feeling the quick thudding of his pulse. The other slid down, back to the hem of his pants, and without drawing his mouth from hers he twisted slightly to allow her better access as she blindly undid the buttons. 

Percy gave her tit one solid squeeze before letting go and reaching down to slide his pants off his hips. In the pursuit of fairness, he then immediately grabbed the edge of her underwear and tried to pull that down as well, running into some trouble when she refused to lift her ass off the bed. She'd rather make him work for it, and in the interest of being difficult she reached out and grabbed his cock.

“ _Vex'ahlia._ ” The name was a growl that sent shivers down her spine to the very center of her. Percy sat up, pulling out of her grip and using both hands to absolutely yank her panties past her knees. He was back on her in a second, his hot breath on her neck, free hand tangling in her hair. She lifted her hips to meet him and there was no elaborate preamble now; he slowly pressed himself into her, shifting slightly between her legs to fit. He simply held himself there, and she couldn't stop herself from groaning, long and low.

He nuzzled against her neck, kissing behind her ear, and she whined, “Don't tease; it's not fair when you do it.” She could feel his low laugh rumble through his chest where he laid against her. 

Finally, _finally_ , he began to move, slowly pulling out, and then pushing back in; she rocked against him, trying to get him to go faster, harder, _anything_ , and just when she thought she might actually die, he picked up the pace, turning her soft whining into a quick gasp. “Oh! Percival,” she moaned, her hands trying and failing to find comfortable purchase, clutching at his hair, his back, clinging to his bicep so hard she may have drawn blood. She was sure the door was hardly soundproof, but she found it harder and harder to keep silent as the mounting pressure of another rising orgasm grew, and grew, until she found her knees tensing hard enough to hurt, and she was sure if she didn't stuff her own fist against her mouth she might- just- 

He didn't say a word, breathing heavily with his face pressed against her cheek, his hand still twisting in her hair (that braid was never going to last) while she moved beneath him. And then suddenly with a sharp intake of breath he was kissing her cheek, her neck, her ear, finally crushing her lips with his and swallowing any sound she might make as he shuddered against her, slowing, stopping, the two of them breathing into each other, chests heaving. The two of them laid there, unmoving, staring into each others' eyes. There were a million things to say, but all of them could wait. 

Silently, Percy lowered his head and kissed her once more, gently, and then rolled to the side. She made to get up, but he reached out and grabbed her around the waist, dragging her down against him.

“Stay. Just for a moment,” he whispered, and she did. 

She lay there with Percy's arms tight around her, in a random Whitestone guest room bed, underwear hanging off one ankle and her only source of clothing a rumpled fancy dress on the floor. It would probably be a trick to sneak out of this one, but there were no plans today, and she'd wriggled out of worse. Moving now would just mean trouble, and acknowledging whatever unknown dynamic she and Percy were about to enter into- so it was probably best to stay here as long as possible. Judging by the way he was burrowing his face into her hair now, Percy probably felt the same.


End file.
